Government Fund for Local Investments : legal aspects of financial support for local government investment projects during the COVID-19 pandemic

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of a reduction in the own revenue of local government units and the corresponding reduction in their expenditure, including asset expenditure, were the determining factor for the introduction of extraordinary and temporary mechanisms to minimise this negative phenomenon from 2020. One of such solutions is the Government Fund for Local Investments, separated within the state special-purpose fund – the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund. The aim of this study is to establish the legal status of the Government Fund for Local Investments (Rządowy Fundusz Inwestycji Lokalnych – RFIL). The hypothesis about the temporary nature of this fund and its close relations with the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund has been verified as being true. It has been established that the RFIL does not have its own sources of revenue, and its financial resources are the result of separating a certain amount of funds accumulated in the account of the COVID-19 Counteracting Fund, which means it is, in fact, its sub-fund with clearly defined tasks to be performed. The RFIL-provided support is non-returnable, and its only beneficiaries are local government units. The resources transferred from this fund may only be used for the implementation of investment projects or for meeting asset expenses. The study uses the legal-dogmatic method and, additionally, the statistical analytical method, to present specific numerical values reflecting the importance of the RFIL support in relation to the own revenue of local government units.